Army needs a new beginning

Apr 08, 2011

The Moscow Times

Ruslan Pukhov

Source: Itar Tass

The debate over the efficiency of Russia's defense industry is
escalating. It has been building for the past few years but culminated
last week when Alexander Postnikov, head of the Ground Forces,
criticized the quality of Russia's most modern tank, the T-90S.
By saying that the German Leopard tank is both better and cheaper than
the T-90, Postnikov clearly intended to put pressure on defense
contractors to improve their quality and productivity. But being
inexperienced in the art of public rhetoric, his attempt came off a bit
clumsily.

Soon after, we heard ominous warnings from President Dmitry Medvedev
of reprisals against defense industry chiefs if they failed to deliver
on orders. Medvedev immediately backed up his words by firing Nikolai
Kalistratov, head of Sevmash, the only Russian company producing
advanced, multipurpose nuclear submarines. Medvedev's strong steps are
also noteworthy given the fact that the defense industry has always been
considered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's exclusive domain.

For the first 15 years or so of the post-Soviet era, the defense
industry focused on export markets and became a global leader in many
areas. For example, Russia leads in the overall tonnage of ships sold
for export and the number of submarines and tanks delivered to foreign
buyers, including the T-90 tank that Postnikov dislikes so much.

In the heavy fighter segment, Sukhoi has sold more combat aircraft —
thanks primarily to Chinese and Indian orders for its Su-30MK model —
than any other aircraft builder except Boeing. What's more, most
of Russia's defense research and development was conducted for orders
from foreign clients, primarily India. In fact, Russia developed its
best-selling Su-30MKI combat aircraft and Talwar-class frigates based
on Indian specifications and requirements.

Throughout this period, domestic orders for conventional weapons
were practically nonexistent. Most of the resources allocated
for developing domestic military programs were spent on the country's
strategic forces to maintain and support its nuclear deterrent and for
maintenance and research work. Even in 2007, when domestic orders
nominally topped the value of export orders, the mass production
of conventional weapons continued to supply mostly foreign customers.

Meanwhile, the conventional weapons sector intended for the domestic
market continued to deteriorate. Both the Defense Ministry and military
contractors only went through the motions for the large part, with
the government pretending to place orders that domestic manufacturers
pretended to fulfill. Defense Ministry orders were delayed for decades,
and even in those cases when they were nominally fulfilled they rarely
met the quality standards and specifications of the orders.

But the increased public criticism from military brass and political
leaders over the past few years has led to an important paradigm shift
in the defense industry, resulting in an improvement in the domestic
defense manufacturing sector. The turning point came after
the military's poor performance in the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
In the past two years, the Defense Ministry has placed large-scale
serial orders for conventional weapons, including 130 new combat
aircraft and more than 100 helicopters.

The Navy has also stepped in with unprecedented orders. Overall,
the Defense Ministry plans to place orders worth more than 19 trillion
rubles ($670 billion) over the next 10 years, hoping thereby to bring
military hardware up to date after a 15-year lapse in government demand
for modern weaponry. The new batch of orders includes eight Borei-class
nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, 10 Iskander missile
brigades, 600 new aircraft, 1,000 helicopters, 28 battalions of the
latest S-400 air-defense missile systems and 100 warships.

As part of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's serious and deep
reforms, he is trying to secure weapons that can truly defend
the country. At the same time, he is reluctant to take responsibility
for reorganizing a defense industry that has suffered from a severe lack
of investment and development for the last 15 years. This has sparked
the war of words over the shortcomings of weapons systems and the
growing tendency by the top brass to purchase military goods
from foreign manufacturers, such as the French Mistral-class helicopter
carriers.

Russia's military-industrial complex in former U.S. President Dwight
Eisenhower's meaning of the phrase is now divided into its two
constituent parts, and they are at Cold War-style loggerheads with each
other. Ideally, the work of coordinating the military with
the manufacturing sector should be carried out by the government's
military-industrial commission, which is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.
But this commission never received the necessary authority and has not
been able to fulfill its primary function: improving how military orders
are fulfilled.

Both the Defense Ministry and the military contractors must find
a new model and modus operandi, but that will be possible only when
the government learns to manage the relevant ministries effectively
and appoints far more competent deputy ministers to oversee the process.

Ruslan Pukhov is director of the Center for Analysis of
Strategies and Technologies and publisher of the journal Moscow Defense
Brief.